Jeffrey Lewis - 'Em Are I

If MRI scans visualise the internal structures of our body, 'Em Are I' is designed to peer inside those less tangible inner workings of us humans. In the hands of a less skilled practitioner, this introspective subject matter could easily meander into self-absorption, but Jeffrey Lewis has become, to borrow his own description of Leonard Cohen, a “songwriting master”. Don’t be fooled by the lo-fi accoutrements, this is staggering, heart-breaking music which uses language to draw out grand themes from workaday scenarios. Lewis glimpses, as Blake did, the “world in a grain of sand”.